Municipal Wastewater: Cutting Down on Freshwater Over-use and Bringing in the Dollars

There is substantial room for the development and expansion of integrated resource management and treated wastewater reuse for power plant cooling – thanks to a seemingly unlimited wealth of municipal waste, no current federal regulations specific to reclaimed water (wastewater) reuse, and as only nine states with regulation specific to industrial reuse of wastewater

As more than 1,100 U.S. counties in the lower 48 states are facing higher risks of water shortages by mid century, due in part to climate change and increasing population, innovative water strategies and conservation must become an integral part of policy making and infrastructure as a whole.

One such strategy is the increased re-use of municipal sewage and storm water. Employing the use of recycled or reclaimed water for such purposes as power plant cooling and golf course irrigation can significantly help conservational efforts by offsetting the amount of freshwater currently being withdrawn for these purposes. However, before these practices may be widely put into effect, federal and state regulation for industrial re-use of wastewater should be given priority.

As the Network for New Energy Choices points out:

There are no federal regulations specific to reclaimed water, and a 2004 EPA study – the most recent nationwide look into reclaimed water use – found that only nine states had regulations or requirements specific to the industrial reuse of wastewater.

Only nine states with legislation for the industrial re-use of municipal wastewater? That leaves 41 states unable to employ this strategy as a means to legally and effectively offset the water footprint in some of the most water intensive industries. As the volume of municipal wastewater produced on average won’t likely fluctuate too heavily, or dry up all together, treated wastewater can serve as a great consistent option for power plant cooling and other water heavy industrial purposes.

About 50 power plants across the United States use reclaimed water, and perhaps the poster child is the Palo Verde Nuclear Plant in Arizona, which draws in about 55 million gallons of wastewater per day from five nearby cities, far more than any other plant in the country. Not only does this keep the 3.7 gigawatt plant from tapping into already-stressed aquifers, but the cities will be paid $1 billion over the next 40 years by the plant’s owners for the privilege of using the cities’ wastewater, turning a former burden into a bonanza.

Cities being paid directly by electric utilities for the use of treated waste-water? Now we’re speaking a language city officials can speak. If it’s the money that does the talking to get recycled wastewater use a’walking, hopefully more cities will follow suit and cash in not just on the massive fresh-water savings potential, but also the straight-up cash benefits.

Consider the massive potential benefits of integrated resource management around wastewater re-use. Siting electric power plants directly next to wastewater treatment facilities (or vice versa) can benefit the waste treatment companies as well as energy producers and other industrial operations. Waste treatment companies can benefit financially by selling treated waste water for use at the electric utility. Electric utility companies can drastically reduce their freshwater withdrawals, thus potentially decreasing operational risk (as their water supply may someday dry up, or communities may act to replace the out-dated over-water-consumptive utility with a modern, renewable electricity source). In addition, treatment plants could potentially benefit by using heat energy pumped from thermoelectric power plant steam waste, which would also further cut down on power plant water requirements.

With such a vast supply of municipal wastewater and a limited supply of freshwater, we must make moves to ensure water efficient practices are being employed by heavily water intensive activities such as producing electricity and irrigating golf courses. Unfortunately, before recycled wastewater reuse can be employed at the wide-scale, federal and state legislation on the re-use of treated wastewater must first be established.